Beyond the banality of the BBC’s repeated use of the phrase “tit for tat”

Somehow, over the past twelve years, the world became accustomed to – and quite relaxed about – the fact that one million Israeli civilians (that is about 14% of the total population) live in permanent danger from mortars, rockets and missiles fired by terrorist organisations based in the Gaza Strip.

With missiles having been aimed and launched at the Greater Tel Aviv and Greater Jerusalem areas in the past two days, the number of Israeli civilians living under threat of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip is now 3.5 million – just less than half the country’s total population. 

Hamas Rocket Threat Ranges Map

Here is a short video on the long-range Fajr 5 missile, produced and supplied by Iran.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3TOYFfNQoY]

As day four of Operation Pillar of Cloud begins, the IDF struck a further 185 terror targets in the Gaza Strip overnight. On Friday, November 16th, a total of 119 rockets hit Israel with an additional 99 missiles intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system, which has achieved a 90% success rate . A fifth Iron Dome battery has now been deployed in the Greater Tel Aviv area.

The IDF also released footage of Hamas testing its own UAV – or drone.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3jg4fZLfxQ]

As well as the leaflets dispersed aerially over the Gaza Strip to warn civilians to keep a distance from terrorists and their facilities, the IDF sent similar text messages to around 12,000 members of the civilian population. 

Missions have also been aborted due to the identification of civilians in the area:

“Yesterday, in the early hours of the morning, a squadron of intelligence collecting aircraft took the sky. Through sophisticated observation equipment and cameras the pilots were able to identify a rocket launch, and Air Force aircraft were sent to strike the area. But things didn’t go as planned. “We saw that innocent civilians were approaching the area of the underground launch site,” said Lt. Omer, a source within the intelligence squadron who took part in the operation. “We immediately contacted the forces and instructed them to abort the strike.” “

When BBC presenters and reporters repeatedly use the trite phrase “tit for tat” in their descriptions of the conflict between Israel and the terrorists in the Gaza Strip, they present a banal, one-dimensional, morally equivalent account of affairs which fails to take into account the fact that whilst Hamas and its affiliates try to terrorise as many Israeli civilians as possible, the IDF does its utmost to avoid civilian casualties whilst focusing on the disabling of terror infrastructure. 

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